Sweet Talk

Photo Vincent Lauzer et Mark Edwards
Intimate concert with Mark Edwards, harpsichord

A look into the supple, changeable, inventive and improvisatory world of harpsichord players and composers in 17th-century France, plus a brand-new suite of character pieces for the occasion.

Featuring music by Chambonnières, Louis Couperin and d’Anglebert, and improvisations inspired by them.

Tickets

30 $ - regular, 25 $ - 65 years and older, 15 $ - student

Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Secours Vault (metro Champ-de-Mars)
400, Saint-Paul East Street
Montreal QC
Canada

Notes de programme

Sweet Talk

Intimate concert with Mark Edwards, harpsichord
La famille Franqueville. par François de Troy,
Artist(s) and Ensemble(s)

Image: Franqueville family, painting from François de Troy

Mark Edwards, harpsichord

Program
Louis Couperin (1626-1661)

Harpsichord suite in A minor

   Prelude à l’imitation de Mr Froberger
   Allemande L’Amiable
   Allemande – double (improvisation)
   Courante
   Courante – double (improvisation)
   Sarabande
   La Piémontoise

Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (1602-1672)

Harpsichord suite in C major

   Prelude (improvisation)
   Allemande Le Moutier
   Allemande – double (Louis Couperin)
   Courante Iris
   Courante – double (D’Anglebert)

Jean-Henri d’Anglebert (1629-1691)

Gaillarde and double

François Couperin (1668-1733)

Harpsichord pieces in G major and G minor from Ordre premier 

   Allemande L’Auguste
   Les Silvains

Improvisations in the manner of François Couperin

   First portrait
   Second portrait
   Third portrait

Program Notes

A look into the supple, changeable, inventive and improvisatory world of harpsichord players and composers in 17th-century France, plus a brand-new suite of character pieces for the occasion.

Biographies

Mark Edwards

First prize winner in the Musica Antiqua Bruges International Harpsichord Competition, Canadian harpsichordist and organist Mark Edwards is recognized for his captivating performances, bringing the listener “to new and unpredictable regions, using all of the resources of his instrument, […] of his virtuosity, and of his imagination” (La Libre Belgique). He is Associate Professor of Harpsichord at Oberlin Conservatory.

He has given solo performances at a number of prominent festivals and concert series, including the Utrecht Early Music Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival, and Bozar (Brussels). He has had concerto performances with a number of award-winning ensembles, including Il Gardellino (Belgium), Neobarock (Germany), and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and he collaborates regularly with Les Boréades de Montréal and Les Délices (Cleveland). His début solo CD, Orpheus Descending, was released in 2017 on the early-music.com label and was reviewed warmly.

Mark is the recipient of academic grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). He studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he earned his Bachelor of Music with highest distinction, and completed graduate degrees at McGill University and the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. His former teachers include Robert Hill, William Porter, and David Higgs. In 2021, he received a PhD from Leiden University after successfully defending his dissertation titled “Moving Early Music: Improvisation and the Work-Concept in Seventeenth-Century French Keyboard Performance.”